Centre Bell erupted into relief when bolduc slid a high shot past Jet Greaves early in the third period, ending a 31-game scoreless stretch and sending the 2-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets into the win column. The ovation that followed made clear how much that single strike meant—to the player, to the bench and to the fans who had watched the drought linger.
How the winning goal unfolded
The sequence began with a strong transition up ice by Mike Matheson and a crisp cross-ice feed from Jake Evans that picked out bolduc for the decisive finish. It was bolduc’s first goal since late December and marked his third game-winning tally in recent outings. Jayden Struble had opened the scoring earlier, registering his first goal of the season, and Damon Severson answered for Columbus before the late break arrived.
What the game revealed about performance and momentum
Jakub Dobes again anchored the Montreal defensive effort, stopping 25 shots in the victory and stopping several dangerous chances in tight moments. His sequence of consecutive saves earlier in the week—41 in a row at one point—underscored the form he carried into this matchup. Lane Hutson also provided a notable offensive show, collecting his 70th point of the season and becoming only the fourth defenseman in club history to reach that mark, behind Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe and Chris Chelios.
Why Bolduc’s goal matters beyond the scoreboard
This goal matters not only because it broke a long drought but because it intersects with deeper analytic context. Data from Sportlogiq cited a substantial gap between expected goals and actual results during bolduc’s scoreless run: over that stretch the numbers suggested he would have been credited with roughly 6. 07 goals. In that metric he ranked near the bottom among eligible NHL players, with only one player showing a larger negative difference. The same analysis highlights how changes in usage—particularly reduced time on the power play—coincided with the decline in finishing chances.
Implications for the club and the road ahead
The win pushed Montreal to a 40-win season and arrived at a moment when the club needed consistency; it was the team’s third straight victory. The Canadiens will begin a five-game road trip with stops that include Nashville and Raleigh, and the coaching staff will be watching whether this goal restores confidence and ice-time patterns that helped bolduc earlier in the year. Lineup changes also filtered through the night: Joseph Veleno returned to the lineup in place of Alexandre Texier, who is being reevaluated for a lower-body injury.
For bolduc, the goal offered immediate relief and a reset. It tied together strong defensive goaltending, an opportunistic finish and the statistical reality that his recent cold streak had not matched the quality of chances he’d been getting. Whether it becomes the start of a new surge will be measured in minutes, usage on special teams and the continued interplay between chance and finish.
Back at Centre Bell, the ovation still echoed as the final buzzer sounded—a brief, human punctuation to a night that mixed frustration, analytics and a simple act of scoring. For the player who had not scored in 31 games, the applause was both an acknowledgement of past struggle and a cautious invitation to hope that this goal is the pivot the season needed for bolduc.
